It has been a busy couple of days to say the least.

However, last night after one of those nearly 40,000 step days, I had a hankering for carbs…lots of carbs…let’s be real sweets. For the most part I have been avoiding processed foods, candy and desserts, while eating primarily real food for the past couple of months. Not last night, even though we had a nice supper, when we finished my body craved and I caved in to go to the “store” and get sweets: Whoopie Pies, Chocolate No Bake Cookie and Sweet Tarts.

When I got home and demolished them all within the space of 20 minutes. It was like I was not in control and could not stop once I started. Not good. This morning I woke up feeling like I had gone 12 rounds and gotten the crap kicked out of me. You know a lot like having a bad hangover, but without the “fun” of drinking too much alcohol, like we might have in our younger days.

So what did I learn from last night.

1. That I do have a sugar addiction and that when I let it run…it doesn’t do me one bit of good.

2. When I have one of those days where I get well over 30,000 steps in that my willpower exponentially decreases its ability to resist the sugar treats.

Okay, so I learned a lot last night and they say that knowledge gained is only as good as how you use it. Which means that I will be more cognizant of the sweet tooth and hopefully not be as likely to repeat last night’s implosion.

What on earth were the factors that lead up to all this?

Wednesday was a scheduled day off from running and while I did a pretty good job of not overdoing things, I still had to roof rake the garage, which always just puts a hurting on the old body – especially my shoulders. However, it is safer than climbing on the roof and shoveling, so I deal with the discomfort as best I can.

The other thing and this was probably a big factor is that SD2’s oldest dog had not been doing well for the past couple of months and it was time. That afternoon she was put to sleep at 18 years old. So the family was dealing with that loss. It is though to loose one of our family, but it was time for her to take the long sleep, still it is hard.

Thursday brought snow and chauffeur duty to Augusta, which meant a trip to the gym on the way home to do my run. The planned workout was a 5.0 mile tempo with a warm-up and cool-down mile.

What I did:

1.0 mile warm-up @ 6.4 mph

4.0 mile Tempo @ 7.8 mph

1.0 mile harder Tempo @ 8.0 mph

0.5 recovery

5 x 0.1 strides @ 9.1 or plus mph with 5 x 0.1 recovery

0.5 cool-down @ 6.3 mph

0.5 walking

For a total of 8.0 miles of running. It was a hard workout to get done, but surprisingly it was not as hard as I thought it was going to be, as evidenced by the being able to handle the faster last mile of the tempo run and the still being able to do the strides after I rested for a bit.

The strides felt good and I might have gotten a bit faster than I thought I would on the last two.

Although I did feel a bit stooopid when I realized about two miles into the run that I hadn’t started my watch. Oh well, stuff happens like that when you have a lot on your mind. The run did clear my head out pretty well though.

Overall, a really great run an one that I probably would not have attempted if I hadn’t done it first thing. I did get a text while running the last mile of the tempo and needed to look at it as soon as I finished it. Just in case my chauffeur hat needed to be donned again to go get SD2 who was still very upset about Wednesday. Luckily it wasn’t anything important and I was able to finish the workout.

Once I got home it was time to move snow so for about 2 1/2 hours I “played” behind the snowblower or shovel and got rid of the 2-4 inches of pain in the arse snow from three driveways. Luckily the neighbor has sold his house and is either closing today or early next week – one less thing to worry about.

By the time I got done with the snowblowing I had over 37,000 steps and was totally wiped out. Which meant lunch and a nap. By the end of the day I had gone over 38,000 steps and didn’t have nearly enough willpower left to combat the – I wanna eat sweets message that the body was sending out.

Yeah, so I had a learning experience over the past couple of days and now know a bit more about how my sweet tooth can effect me when I am tired.

I will get back to avoiding most sweets again, but I do not ever see me completely giving them up, although next time, I want to be the one in control, not the so-called sugar rush.

It is still difficult for us not have Karma around, but she had a good life and was well loved by us all.

Yes, I am an old softie, I just do not show it all that often, but our critters do take a piece of our hearts when they go, but at the same time they give so much more back to us while they are with us that it is worth the pain when they leave.